A Pixel To The Right
by Sloth45
Summary: Small changes have big impacts. Franz Hopper, born Waldo Schaeffer, clicked an icon on the most powerful computer that existed in his time. He missed. And history changes from his one small mistake, until years later a twelve year old boy scavenging an abandoned factory for robot parts meets and befriends a computer program named X.A.N.A.
1. Chapter 1

Waldo Schaeffer glared at the screen of one of the most advanced supercomputers in the world. The screen continued to glow dimly in the darkened lab, and the numbers in the corner of the screen changed from 3:16 to 3:17.

He sighed, and absently pushed his glasses up where they had fallen to rest _just_ below where he wanted to keep them while he worked, and reached over to the portable folding table that held his cup of coffee. It was late, and he was tired, but he _had_ to keep working. If he didn't, some men-in-black type thugs would probably track down him and his family for betraying Project Carthage and escaping, and the moving house and new identities would be pointless.

So, Waldo Schaeffer, now Franz Hopper, coded into the night. It was just far too much work for one man, even one as brilliant as himself, and so he was coding an Artificial Intelligence to be his assistant, a difficult job even for him, and he had built one of the only computers in the world who could run such a thing. It was mostly of his own design, but some parts and ideas had come from Project Carthage, something that the people running the military project were most displeased about.

He set down his cup of coffee, too lost in thought to have actually used it, and drifted the mouse over to open a coding reference he was presently too tired to remember immediately.

He missed.

Instead, his cursor continued to drift just a hint further then he intended to, and he opened a far more important file to him:

A picture, of his wife and daughter.

A smile appeared on the tired scientist's face, replacing the mild frown he had worn for the better part of an hour. It was a simple picture, but in it was something that meant everything to him- A young girl with light pink hair, a woman with equally pink hair just barely a hint of a shade lighter, and himself. And in it, his little girl had just tackled him and was hugging him with everything she had, birthday present left forgotten out of frame, and her mother laughing freely at his surprised look.

They were everything to him, especially now. Now that he had left his life behind, they were almost the only thing he'd brought with him, and they were why he was working into the night, so he could destroy Project Carthage and finally end the danger to his family.

He moved the picture to the right of the screen and clicked the top of it, selecting an option from a menu that appeared and putting out a few quick keystrokes. It was only a moment's work to make the picture stay on top of whatever else he opened.

Then, he opened the source code of his AI, something he was planning to name X.A.N.A- A bit of a mean spirited joke from his days with Carthage, but hopefully no one who would know what it meant would ever be able to find it- and started to re-examine the code. It was almost ready for compiling and activation, where he'd be able to expand on it bit by bit, as he saw how the AI reacted, and what direction he would have to shape it. One of the phrases he'd written in the code notes (Ones that X.A.N.A would be able to read as well, once sufficiently advanced and able to help him help it) caught his eye.

_Destroy Project Carthage at all costs._

He shook his head. Now that he thought about it, it was something he had put in while particularly frustrated at his situation, at how he had to outmaneuver them to keep his family safe. He supposed there wasn't much harm in leaving it in, something to remind him of what he was working for. But...

His eyes slid to the still open picture, of his wonderful wife and their only child, both standing out with their pink hair. Most would say it was simply too bright to be natural. He would agree, but he'd also point out it was still natural anyway, and usually chuckle at whatever disbelieving response he got from that. Or at least, he used to.

Now, he had left everyone that had known him behind, but their hair hadn't changed, not yet- Most dyes wouldn't cover it in a way that looked normal enough to the both of them, and both mother and daughter had wanted to keep it the way it was. Now, he thought in a new direction, one that in his fervor he'd ignored.

_Anthea._

_Aelita._

No, he decided.

The most important thing was not to destroy Project Carthage.

The most important thing was keeping his wife and daughter safe.

He swiftly returned to the still open window in front of him, and erased _Destroy Project Carthage_. Then, after a moment's thought, he replaced it with _Protect Anthea and Aelita Schaeffer_.

That put his mind to rest, for the moment, although he reflected he should probably ask his wife for guidance on this issues. Normally, he did most of his work by himself, but when it came to something unrelated to computers, he normally turned to her- She had a good head on her shoulders, and often managed to point out a new perspective when he needed it.

He saved the program, and put the computer into a locked sleep mode without compiling it. He'd been working too hard on this, as urgent as it was, and now realized he'd been neglecting the family he'd been working so hard to protect.

It was time to go home.


	2. Chapter 2

It was almost perfect.

It had nearly cost him his sanity, and added quite a few years to his mind if not his body through liberal use of the Supercomputer's most powerful ability, but he had nearly succeeded in making X.A.N.A the perfect AI. And as much as taking credit for it would have elevated him to best programmer in the world in the eyes of any who knew the difficulties involved, he couldn't take credit for it.

That credit belonged to his family.

Ever since his revelation, he'd been spending more time with them, and using the Temporal Reversion to enjoy some time with his wife and child as well as work on the digital sanctuary he was building with X.A.N.A. He had protested, at first, about how his work on a safe haven for them, untouchable by anyone who would want to find them was far more important then _leisure time_, but Anthea had talked him out of it, and now he was grateful for it, because he didn't know what living the same day over and over would have done to him otherwise.

The Temporal Reversion had also had another interesting result, as well; X.A.N.A had become self aware. The super computer doubled in power every time it was activated, and as such the AI had been granted much room to grow. He was very pleased with what his AI had developed into; but he had spent long hours with his wife, talking about what was best for them.

At least; he had. She had patiently but firmly insisted X.A.N.A be programmed with what was best for everyone. He still did the coding, but she had been an anchor of morality, helping him rewrite it's core goals and requirements as something that would, eventually be set out to help _everyone_ it could, save/ for those who would be the ones hurting others.

Special cases would crop up, he was certain, but with X.A.N.A's new found self awareness, it would now be able to think and rationalize... to a certain degree. It was an entirely new field, and an imperfect one, but he had done very well, in his own opinion.

Normally, he'd be at his seat in the Lab, conversing with his creation and friend as he worked, but today was one of the days he was spending with his family, so much as "Today" could be said when you so often lived the same day over and over again.

_Zap._

He sat up, deathly still, before staring at his wrist. X.A.N.A would one day be able to communicate at range better when the rest of the world's technology had caught up, but for now, he had an emergency system built into a wristwatch. It only had one signal, one use at the moment, because he could do anything else while at the factory.

_Zap._

Two pulses. This was not a test. _They_ were coming.

He silently thanked his friend as he got up, and set out to find Anthea and Aelita. He had almost lost both with the Mountain Cabin incident, one to wolves and the other to a kidnapping that would have succeeded had he not immediately left for town to mollify Aelita's fear of the wild animal she'd escaped and he wasn't going to risk losing them again now.

The Scanners were waiting. Lyoko was almost perfect, and it was advanced enough that once inside, he'd be able to get to a tower and finish the final details.

But now, it was time for flight, and X.A.N.A was likely waiting as well.

He trusted his friend would be ready to receive himself and his family in person.


End file.
